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SHE came out of Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. En route to the present day, she picked him up in England in the 18th century. Today they live on Manhattan's East Side in a magnificent marble palazzo, a grand mausoleum stuffed with antiques that were new when they were acquired. They are Miriam and John Blaylock - young, beautiful and permanently engaged in a search for new blood.

As played by the immaculately beautiful Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, who becomes an increasingly interesting screen presence with each succeeding film, the Blaylocks are very good company. That is, if one has a taste for vampire films, especially vampire films that look as trendy and chic as Tony Scott's ''Hunger.'' If Bendel's made movies, they'd look like this.

''The Hunger,'' which opens today at the Cinerama and other theaters, is a love story not necessarily for the ages, but about them. Specifically, it's about what happens when 200-year-old John begins to show his years, which occurs almost overnight. His last blood fix, provided by a young couple picked up at a disco, hasn't worked, and Miriam, like any other concerned wife, seeks medical advice. She goes to Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), a brilliant young scientist engaged in research about the aging process. At first, Miriam wants medical help, then she wants Sarah.

What makes ''The Hunger'' so much fun is its knowing stylishness, which Mr. Scott, who makes his theatrical film debut here, has brought to movies from a career in commercials and documentaries. Here is a film that, for once, is appropriately served by fast cuts, overlapping dialogue, flashy camera work, wildly fashionable clothes and decor so elegant that only mythical creatures could sit around in it.

Mr. Scott and his collaborators, Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, who wrote the screenplay based on Whitely Streiber's novel, knew what they were up to and how to get it.

Though ''The Hunger'' has all the elements that people who seek out horror films expect, it is not, strictly speaking, a horror film. Rather, it is a film of visual sensations, not all of which are quite so explicit as the sight of Miss Deneuve making love to the innocent Miss Sarandon, while simultaneously giving her a blood transfusion.

The screenplay, the direction, the performances, the photography (by Stephen Goldblatt) and the production design (by Brian Morris) are all of a piece. The movie reeks with chic, but never, for one minute, takes itself too seriously, nor does it ever slop over into camp.

Miss Deneuve and Mr. Bowie have the manners and looks of very special characters, Beautiful People who are ageless but, underneath it all, exhausted. When John starts to go downhill, his mate of two centuries is genuinely concerned - you don't live with a guy that long without developing a relationship. She does all she can, but when she realizes he's a hopeless case, she gets another coffin ready in the attic, where there are already quite a few. Poor John won't ever die, he'll just disintegrate into a pile of dust that feels pain.

A technical highlight of the film is a scene in which John, sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office, ages from 30 to 85 in front of our eyes. It's not done, as in werewolf movies, through a series of superimpositions, but so subtly that one at first isn't quite sure it's happening, any more than John is.

Miss Sarandon puts her mark on the film with one of her nowobligatory nude scenes, which she does extremely well in addition to being a good performer with her clothes on. Cliff de Young plays her lover, who eventually gets dumped for more exotic friends, and 14-year-old Beth Ehlers is Alice, the little girl next door who joins John and Miriam in impromptu afternoon musicales - John on cello, Miriam on piano and Alice on violin - and stays for dinner. Vincent Canby

Twilight Years

THE HUNGER, directed by Tony Scott; screen- play by Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas; based on a novel by Whitley Strieber; music by Michel Rubini and Denny Jaeger; director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt; produced by Richard A. Shepherd; released by M-G-M/UA Entertainment Co. At the RKO Cinerama, Broadway at 47th Street; RKO 86th Street Twin, Lexington at 86th Street; East Side Cinema, Third Avenue at 55th Street; 8th Street Playhouse, 52 West 8th Street; Loews 83d Street Quad, Broadway at 83d Street. Running time: 98 minutes. This film is rated R.